Jong Jin Park

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Research
Interests

As
a Postdoctoral Scholar at WHOI, I am pursuing several research interests. While these interests may differ in regard to various
spatio-temporal scales, they are linked through their connection and contribution
to maintaining the circulation and buoyancy structure of the upper oceans. I have summarized each of these interests
below.

Near-inertial
waves as a major contributor to the upper ocean mixing

Upper
thermocline mixing induced by internal waves (especially near-inertial waves) contributes
to sustaining the shallow meridional overturning circulation. In the prospective of inertial wave
energetics, I investigate total kinetic energy of near-inertial waves in the
mixed layer and its energy radiation below the mixed layer. In terms of the global mixing energy budget, studies
on global distribution of the inertial energy flux can be extrapolated to
determine how much energy from the near-inertial wave is going into turbulent
mixing of the upper ocean thermocline.

Ocean
Response to Tropical Storm: its impact to global climate

I
am also currently working on quantitative assessment of the capability and
limitation of the Argo float (www.argo.net ) data
in determining upper ocean response to hurricanes on a basin-to-global scale. Our current understanding of the upper ocean
response to storms is based on observational campaigns and modeling studies
focused mostly on individual storms. Employing
data from the global observational network of Argo floats, in conjunction with
satellite observations, offers us an opportunity to extrapolate our
understanding of upper ocean response to the examination of its basin-to-global
scale consequences. Argo floats measure
subsurface temperature and salinity profiles before and after storms, thereby
providing us with a comprehensive dataset to study the overall impact of the
storms on sea sub-surface and surface.

Possible
linkage between global energy cycle and water cycle

Another
related interest of mine is how sea surface salinity, as a factor of the water
cycle, is linked with the air-sea heat exchange in tropical oceans. The tropical Atlantic Ocean exerts a significant
influence on the climate of nearby continents. This has been especially evident in recent decades
with the warming of the tropical Atlantic Ocean, resulting in the
growing formation, frequency and intensity of hurricanes. Rainfall amounts in adjacent areas of the
Nordeste region of Brazil and the Sahel of Africa
are linked to the position of the Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone
(ITCZ), which migrates toward the warmer hemisphere. These consequences of air-sea heat exchange
have been investigated mainly in terms of sea surface temperature (SST) and
only recently studies have begun to focus on the role of sea surface salinity on
regulating SST.

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